276 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



Again, it may seem unlikely that there can be 

 pairing for life in species, like the chaffinch of 

 northern Europe and, with us, of Scotland, in 

 which the sexes separate and migrate separately. 

 Also of non-gregarious species like the nightingale 

 in which the males arrive in this country several 

 days before the females. Yet I am confident that 

 if we could catch and mark a considerable num- 

 ber of pairs it would be found that the same male 

 and female found one another and re-mated every 

 year. 



It comes to this, that birds may pair for life, 

 yet not be all the time or all the year together, 

 as in the case of hawks, crows, owls, herons, and 

 many others. In numberless species which un- 

 doubtedly pair for life the sexes keep apart during 

 several hours each day, and there is some evi- 

 dence that those that separate for a part of the 

 year remain faithful. 



An incident, related by Miss Ethel Williams, 

 of Winchester, in her natural history notes con- 

 tributed to a journal in that city, bears on this 

 point. She had among the bird pensioners in the 

 garden of her house adjoining the Cathedral 

 green, a female thrush that grew tame enough to 



